May 2016

There’s a few rumours flying around that Apple will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack in the next iPhone. Some say it will be gone with this year’s iPhone, while others say the 2017, 10th anniversary iPhone will be the one to move to wireless (or Lightning) headphones as the default option. One Chinese company is betting on the former, releasing Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapters ahead of this year’s iPhone.

In order to combat the naysayers (or just to provide the next evolution of their product), Business Insider claims Apple’s digital assistant is about to get a big upgrade, thanks to Apple’s acquisition of VocalIQ last year. VocalIQ is a voice-powered search assistant that can handle long and complicated queries, and in tests against Siri, Google Now, and Microsoft’s Cortana, VocalIQ proved more accurate and boasted a higher success rate for searches.

Apple has been talking with charging station companies about their underlying infrastructure, prompting further rumours about what the company’s next big thing will be. But charging firms are having none of it, with charging companies treading carefully so as to not give away too many industry secrets to a company that could easily become their biggest competitor.

We’re perhaps six months out from the reveal of a new iPhone, but 9to5Mac thinks it has the specs and rumours in the bag. While there’s no denying some of the features we’ll be seeing — a dual camera is almost certainly going to make an appearance on at least one model — how they’ll be implemented still remains to be seen, which is generally how Apple pulls ahead of the competition, even if they weren’t the first to market.

New schematics of the iPhone 7 corroborate earlier rumours claiming only the Plus form-factor will get a dual-lens camera, with neither model getting a Smart Connector. Those wishing for the camera bump to go away might have to keep wishing a little longer, because even without a dual-lens camera system, the regular-sized iPhone still looks like it’ll get a raised camera bump.

The latest leaked component from this year’s iPhone is a dual-lens camera component, which I’m confident we can say will be a headlining feature in at least one of the iPhones released this year. Now, it seems that 256GB of storage will also be an option, but the question still remains whether Apple will choose to go with 16GB of base storage or not in the face of increasing storage requirements for higher megapixel counts and 4K video.

The latest iPhone rumour comes from an Apple casing supplier, who says one of the 2017 iPhones will be moving to a glass casing in order to differentiate itself from the plethora of aluminium devices on the market. While the device will still have a metal frame, mounting rumours of a massive redesign has also sprouted speculation of a much bigger jump than previous “s” iterations.

Just when we were talking about the lack of country-specific Apple press releases yesterday, Apple comes out and announces a new iOS app design and development accelerator in Bengaluru, India, which aims to provide specialised support for India’s tens of thousands of iOS developers. While the iOS design and development accelerator won’t open until early next year, one-on-one app reviews will support Indian iOS developers in creating better iOS apps.

Anandtech’s review of the iPhone SE says it’s the best 4-inch smartphone on the market, even if only by default due to the lack of 4-inch devices from other smartphone manufacturers. But with best-in-class components and a more comfortable form factor for many users, there’s no doubt the iPhone SE will be a success in terms of sales.

What’s purported to be the rear shell of the next iPhone has been leaked again to Chinese social media site Weibo. This time around the rear shell shows off relocated antenna bands and an additional cutout near the iPhone rear camera microphone hole, which prompted speculation about what it could be for. One of the holes is for the rear-facing microphone, but what about the other, and why are they different sizes?